Syracuse, NY - Barrie Gewanter, of the New York Civil Liberties Union, says the Tasering of two Syracuse high school students by city police officers “raises serious questions about the use of force by police in the schools.”

Gewanter is the director of the Central New York Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union. She said the union is looking into both incidents

“We feel that there is really no place for armed police in schools,” she said.

Syracuse Superintendent Daniel Lowengard says that police do a good job in the city schools and that they did not use excessive force in either incident.

On Monday, an officer assigned to Fowler High School used a Taser on a student to stop a fight, and Syracuse Police Chief Gary Miguel has said its use was justified and preferable to the use of a nightstick.

Tuesday, in an unrelated incident, an officer assigned to Nottingham High used a Taser to subdue a 16-year-old student who struck him in the face.

Gewanter said when police assigned to schools carry weapons that potentially can inflict very serious or deadly force, it is “an invitation to mistakes with serious consequences.”

“And we can see this in the incidents of the past couple of days,” she said.

Gewanter pointed to two things she thinks indicate problems. Based on media accounts, she said, the officer who used the Taser at Fowler hit the wrong student. The officer who used the Taser at Nottingham used it on a student twice, once after he was on the ground, she said.

Miguel has said that the Fowler office fired the Taser at a girl the officer determined to be the main combatant in the second of two fights that happened as school let out. Instead of hitting the girl, one of the Taser’s probes hit a male the girl was throwing punches at, Miguel said. He also said the Taser had no effect on either of them.

At Nottingham, according to police reports, a disruptive student who had been called into the office struck the officer in the chin with his hand and fought with the officer.

The officer said the two exchanged blows. He said after he unholstered his Taser, the student refused to comply with an order and stepped toward the officer, so he fired the Taser, which struck the student.The officer said the student fell but refused to put his hands behind his back, so a second Taser cycle was administered.